Pineapple and Yam Cake February 23, 2009

What to do with some pieces of fresh (or canned) pineapple that you don’t wanna eat anymore and some yam you didn’t use? Just make a pineapple and yam cake! You’ll need: 1 and 1/4 cup of oil or butter, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, salt, baking soda, 4 eggs, 3 cups grated yam, 1 cup pineapple, and 1 cup walnuts.

Instructions:

1. Mix the melted butter (or oil) with sugar.
2. Add flour, cinnamon and baking soda (I always mix the baking soda with 1 tsp of lemon juice first).
3. Add 4 eggs, one at a time.
4. Incorporate 3 yams, pineapple and walnuts (if the mixture is too thick and sticky, add a bit of milk or water).
5. Pour into a big cake pan and put in the oven (350F) for one hour or until done.

Feta Cheese Veggies February 3, 2009

Another way of cooking garlic veggies – this time with a bit of feta cheese (I’m a big fan of the Macedonian feta from Kalamata, the one you can buy for $30/bucket).

Ingredients: 1-2 red bell peppers, 2-3 yams, 2-3 carrots, 1 bunch asparagus, 1 onion, 2-3 garlic cloves, 6-8 mushrooms, olive oil, 1/2 lemon, 300 gr feta cheese, basil, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Peel and cut yams and carrots, and boil them for some 20-30 minutes (they need to be soft, but not completely done).
2. Cut bell peppers, asparagus and mushrooms and marinate them with olive oil, juice from half a lemon, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to marinate.
3. Put all veggies in a big pan, add the yams and the carrots. Put in the oven (350F) for 30 minutes.
4. When almost  done (all veggies are soft), add the basil and the crumbled feta cheese.

Yams and carrots soup January 27, 2009

This soup is so easy to make, it would be a shame not to try it. You’ll need: 2-3 yams, 2-3 carrots, 1/2 celery root, 1 onion, 2-3 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup milk, oil, salt, pepper, curry. Optional, you could throw in other root veggies.

Instructions:

1. First, peel and cut into cubes all the root veggies.
2. Finely cut onion and fry it in a bit of oil. Do it in the pot where you’ll cook the soup, so make sure it’s big enough. Add garlic cloves.
3. Once the onion turned translucent, pour 2-3 cups of water and add all the root veggies.
4. When the veggies are soft, add salt and pepper. Mash the veggies (I do it by hand, but if you have a food processor, that works too).
5. Add the curry and the 1/2 cup milk and stir. Let boil for 5 more minutes, remove and serve hot.